Before Contact: Native America and the Columbian Exchange
The diverse nations already here, the empire Spain toppled, and how 1492 rewired the plants, animals, and diseases of two continents.
4 topics · 15 questions
Each topic is a path, not a menu: work down it in order and every question builds on the one above. Click any of them to watch the answer draw itself.
Native Nations Before 1492
- How it worksHow did geography turn Mississippian mound-builders into farmers and Great Plains nations into buffalo hunters?
- How it worksWalk me through how the Iroquois Confederacy bound five rival nations under one shared council.
- Common mistakeWhy isn't it true that Native America before 1492 was one culture living one single way of life?
- Going furtherWhat changes about a Native nation's economy once it sits on a major river instead of a desert?
Your turn1 of 2
Around 1450, Mississippian peoples along the Mississippi River farmed corn, beans, and squash on rich floodplain soil and built large mound cities like Cahokia, while nations on the dry Great Plains followed migrating buffalo herds and moved their camps through the year. What best explains why these two groups built such different ways of life?The Spanish Conquest and the Encomienda System
- How it worksWalk me through how Cortes turned the Aztec Empire's own conquered tribute-payers into his allies.
- How it worksHow did the encomienda system hand a conquistador Native labor without technically owning the people?
- Common mistakeWhy isn't smallpox a minor detail next to steel and horses in explaining the Aztec Empire's collapse?
Your turn1 of 2
In 1521, Hernan Cortes and roughly five hundred Spanish soldiers helped bring down the Aztec Empire, which had ruled millions of subjects across central Mexico. What most directly explains how such a small Spanish force could defeat an empire that outnumbered it so heavily?The Columbian Exchange
- How it worksWalk me through what crossed the Atlantic each direction: horses and wheat one way, corn and potatoes the other.
- Worked exampleTrace the potato's trip from the Andes to Ireland and Ireland's population climbing past 8 million by 1840.
- Common mistakeWhy isn't the Columbian Exchange just a story about new foods showing up in European kitchens?
- Going furtherWhat happens to a Native population with no immunity the first time smallpox reaches its village?
Your turn1 of 2
Before the potato became a staple crop, Ireland's population was about 3.34 million. Because a family could grow enough food for itself on a very small plot of potatoes, the population climbed to about 8.18 million by 1840. About what percentage did Ireland's population grow over that period?European Claims Carve Up North America
- How it worksShow me Spanish, French, Dutch, and English claims spreading across North America between 1600 and 1700.
- How it worksHow did France's fur trade and Spain's mining colonies lead to two totally different maps of settlement?
- Going furtherWhat happens to New Netherland's claim on the map the moment England seizes New Amsterdam in 1664?
- Ties togetherHow does the Columbian Exchange's disease toll help explain how fast European colonial claims were able to spread?
Your turn1 of 2
By 1700, Spain held mining colonies and plantations across Mexico and the Caribbean, France ran a fur-trading network along the St. Lawrence and Great Lakes with relatively few settlers, the Netherlands held trading posts along the Hudson River, and England had sent large numbers of families to farm New England and the Chesapeake. What best explains why the continent ended up divided into these separate, competing zones instead of one shared colonial system?